ACCOUNTING 101
ACCOUNTING 101
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
The makers of AccountEdge
Written by:
Todd Salkovitz
Product Evangelist
This document was written with the best intentions of describing the daily accounting functions
that most small business owners grapple with. The accounting processes, terminology and
theory described here relates to our own experiences here in the USA, and may not translate
exactly to your own local, regional, or national customs, laws, or practices.
Our goal is present a basic overview, so any discrepancies for localization are purely accidental.
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Like all small business owners, you went into business with a dream: to sell your unique
product or services and make a good living for you, your family, your employees and your
partners. You also wanted to change the world so you made the decision to run your small
business using AccountEdge. Now reality has kicked in and you are faced with the challenge
of managing your operations and your nances, all on a Macintosh. In this special edition of
Accounting 101 well explain the basics of accounting in easy to understand terms with real
life examples, showing you the impact on your nancial statements. Well also discuss working
with your CPA, no matter what platform they are using.
Lets review what youve probably already done today. When you got to work you probably
checked the fax machine for any incoming orders. Next, you reviewed your email for any email
or web orders. You also check voice mail to see if any previous quotes have been accepted.
You also checked the mail, where you found a stack of vendor bills and a few customer
checks. Next, you reviewed your online bank balance and saw that the big deposit you were
waiting for nally arrived. Next, you wrote some checks and ordered more inventory. Feeling
kind of ush, you called the local Apple Store and placed an order for that new MacBook Air
you wanted, using your credit card. Since its Friday, you also had to run payroll, process
paychecks and make your direct deposits. You also went to the bank and made a 941 deposit.
When you got back to the o ce you had a stack of phone messages, including one from your
best supplier o ering a one-day sale and from your newest customer who wanted to exchange
some parts and place another order, he was also asking for credit terms, and he had a lead for
some new business you had discussed. Then your cell phone rings, another new client with a
huge order asking if you accept credit cards. Finally, you realize you better pay yourself, if
there is money left. Then you ask yourself: Hows cash ow? Who owes me money? Whom
do I owe money to? Is my business going to succeed? How do I keep it all together? How do I
know?
Does this sound like a typical day for you? As a small business entrepreneur, it probably does.
Most likely, you deal with all this stu and more before your rst cup of co ee. Admit it, you
probably struggle a little bit to keep it all together. No matter how you handle all these
transactions, the fact is, they are all accounting transactions: taking orders, buying stock,
selling parts, buying computers, making deposits, writing paychecks, remitting payroll taxes,
paying yourself, and more. In the average day, you probably do more accounting than you
ever thought possible. How you track that data, what reports you have access to and how
accurate and up to date they are play a large part in determining your nancial success.
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How you work with your bookkeeper (if thats not you) and your CPA (you should have one you
love) probably determine how successful your business is.
How you keep it all running smoothly probably falls on your shoulders. Knowing your local,
state and federal tax regulations, deadlines and responsibilities probably keeps you up at night.
Understanding what it all means and using that information to your advantage is what this
document is all about.
When you started your small business you probably did as most small business entrepreneurs
do and tried to use software that came with your Mac or PC, or downloaded for free, to run
your business. Maybe you tried some free service or Excel. If you are a creative professional,
you may have used a system that looks like this: Invoices were done using inDesign (because
you could put your logo on them in 1200dpi), checkbook register in Excel, and everything
else done by hand. Your rst experience with bookkeeping was probably to use a
computerized checkbook system since it worked so well for your home nances. Not a bad
place to start. But, as your business grew beyond the checkbook, your record keeping,
reporting, and compliance requirements also grew.
Now you have customers to track, vendors to pay, sales to record, sales taxes and payroll
taxes to track and a full set of accounts to maintain. You probably also have an accountant
who is preparing your state, federal and maybe even your payroll taxes for you. Maybe you
have inventory, or bill your employees time, or hire lots of subcontractors C all of these things
require integrated record keeping, they require a-c-c-o-u-n-t-i-n-g!
By now you nd yourself spending more time keeping your books than keeping your
customers happy. You understand the importance of having accurate books, but you have a lot
of demands on your time, so accounting and record keeping never seem to get the attention
they require. You fondly skipped all those high school and college accounting courses, guring
you werent going to be an accountant anyway. Well, surprise! Not only are you an
accountant, you are a lawyer, a shipping clerk, a customer service rep, a lawyer and more C all
in the pursuit of your dream.
So what can you do to make this work? The rst step is to understand the basics and how
they all t together. At the end of this booklet is a glossary of all the relevant accounting terms
that will help you understand the science of accounting. Understanding the terminology will
help you understand the concepts and their relevance to you, and more importantly, they will
help you analyze and run your small business. All the information you need to run a successful
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small business is contained in your accounting system C recording your transactions, verifying
their accuracy, and interpreting your nancial statements C thats your goal!
Before we go any further, keep this in mind: you dont have to be an accountant to run
AccountEdge. All too often small business owners use this line to shun doing any type of
record keeping (and therefore, business management), to their own detriment. The reality is,
Im not a mechanic, but I can drive my car. Im also not a plumber, but I can x a running toilet
and Im certainly not a doctor, but I can put a band-aid on my kids knee, even take out a
splinter. All it takes is the will to succeed and the desire to run a successful operation. Will it be
easy? I wish I could say yes. Will it be frustrating? I wish I could say no. Will it be invaluable to
your business and your long-term success? You bet! Will you ever need outside help? You
might, so dont be afraid to call in a professional C either your accountant or one of our
AccountEdge Certi ed Consultants (local, tech-savvy, business management experts) in your
community, nd them online at .
Our goal is to help you understand the basic concepts of accounting and how they relate to
your business. One of the great things about AccountEdge is that it does all the debits and
credits for you empowering you to manage your business. Smarter.
Your Daily Life
First, let's start with an overview of how accounting ts into your daily life. Quite simply, every
transaction you make results in an entry into your books. Whether it is a receipt of cash, a
sale, a check youve written or a deposit from a customer C every transaction gets recorded in
your books at some point. The timeliness and accuracy of when and how you record your
transaction directly a ects your ability to manage your business and your cash ow because
accurate and timely data entry equal accurate and timely nancial statements. Want to know
how you are doing year to date? As long as all your transactions are entered correctly, a
simple click of the mouse will produce the information you need.
If you think your business is checkbook-centric, remember that there are plenty of
transactions that do not involve cash that should be recorded in your books. Anything that
a ects the things you own (assets) like repairs or purchases, all require a transaction. Anything
that a ects what you owe (liabilities) like sales taxes or payroll taxes requires a transaction to
be recorded. Anything that a ects sales (revenue), like an invoice or a product return needs to
be recorded. And, as you no doubt already know, all your vendor bills (expenses) are recorded
when received and again when they are paid. Just because cash is not exchanged does not
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